{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/bv79s1nk7n/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Ricardo Cortez Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRicardo Cortez, a Queens College alumnus who grew up in Bayside, serves as Co-CEO of Broadmark Asset Management LLC, an investment management company based in San Francisco. Cortez describes how his parents met in Midtown Manhattan in the 1940s, his experiences in the 1950s living in a tough Upper West Side neighborhood before moving to Bayside, and his memories of balancing school and music gigs as a student at Bayside High School. Specifically, Cortez details his teenage years playing backup guitar for various bands at recording studios and on tour, including The Coasters.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCortez discusses the challenges he had as a Queens College student who was already married and working full time by the age of 19 years old. Cortez credits his Queens College professors, specifically George Held and Alex Orenstein, for being flexible, supportive, and generous with their time. Cortez reflects on his change in career paths when he dropped out of a mathematics PhD program at Columbia University and accepted a job at Merrill Lynch. Cortez explains that economics was not his passion at that time, but because he was good at it and continued in that line of work, it developed into his passion over time. Cortez reflects on the value of education, the high quality of the faculty at Queens College in the 1960s, and his deep ties to Queens and New York City.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2023-01-19 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Tags"]},"value":{"en":["Queens College Alumni"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Video"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Ricardo Cortez (Interviewee)","Rebecca Rushfield (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1940s-2023 (temporal)","Queens College and Bayside, Queens, NY; Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRicardo Cortez, a Queens College alumnus who grew up in Bayside, serves as Co-CEO of Broadmark Asset Management LLC, an investment management company based in San Francisco. Cortez describes how his parents met in Midtown Manhattan in the 1940s, his experiences in the 1950s living in a tough Upper West Side neighborhood before moving to Bayside, and his memories of balancing school and music gigs as a student at Bayside High School. Specifically, Cortez details his teenage years playing backup guitar for various bands at recording studios and on tour, including The Coasters.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCortez discusses the challenges he had as a Queens College student who was already married and working full time by the age of 19 years old. Cortez credits his Queens College professors, specifically George Held and Alex Orenstein, for being flexible, supportive, and generous with their time. Cortez reflects on his change in career paths when he dropped out of a mathematics PhD program at Columbia University and accepted a job at Merrill Lynch. Cortez explains that economics was not his passion at that time, but because he was good at it and continued in that line of work, it developed into his passion over time. Cortez reflects on the value of education, the high quality of the faculty at Queens College in the 1960s, and his deep ties to Queens and New York City.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/304/654/small/cortez_ricardo_20230119_portrait_resized.jpg?1773423496","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - cortez_ricardo_20230119_full.mp4"]},"duration":3684.65,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/304/654/small/cortez_ricardo_20230119_portrait_resized.jpg?1773423496","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/304/654/original/cortez_ricardo_20230119_full.mp4?1773423448","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3684.65,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. I'm Rebecca Rushfield. It is Thursday, January 19th, 2023. I'm interviewing Ricardo Cortez. It's, I think, 8 in the morning where you are?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1.0,17.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: [laughs] Right. Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=17.0,18.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It's very early and you're dressed in a suit and ready to go into the day.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=18.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, I live on New York time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=23.0,25.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Oh, OK. You work, do you work remotely with a New York firm? Or you just...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=25.0,31.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, we manage money on the New York Stock Exchange, so I'm up at 4 a.m. every morning.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=31.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Oh gosh. OK. [laughs] So we're in the middle of your day.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=36.0,40.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah, right. Time for lunch.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=40.0,44.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: We don't really want to talk about the New York Stock Exchange. We want to talk about your life in Queens and at Queens College. And I'm very interested in hearing about your youth and your family and how everything...How you learned to play the guitar and whatever. So, your mother was born in New York? I'm trying -- [RR is looking at RC's information sheet] no, she was born in [Minnesota and grew up in] Wisconsin. And your father was born in Argentina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=44.0,71.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: That's right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=71.0,72.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: How did they come to New York and meet, and you come to be, I guess?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=72.0,77.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: [Laughs] Well, it's a New York story. In, I believe probably it was 1945 or 1946, my father immigrated here from Argentina. He went to Los Angeles, tried to make it in the movies, because in those days it was Valentino and the Latin lover, and he tried to break in. He was thin, handsome. He didn't make it [laughs]. So he made his way to New York. And like any immigrant, he needed a job. And he was a fast-food chef. So he worked in a diner around 40th Street and Fifth Avenue. There was a diner there. Don't remember the name of it. It might have been Blue Bay Diner. But in any case, he was a short-order cook. My mother, from Wisconsin, was a hairdresser. So she took her classes to be a hairdresser.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=77.0,137.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: She ran a hair dressing salon. She was the manager in Oklahoma City, of all places. And then made her way to New York and worked at Lord \u0026 Taylor. Which was at 39th and Fifth Avenue. And she was -- so, she's very, very pretty. And she was a model and modeled on the side. And also did hair at the salon. And every day she would go to the diner to have lunch. And my father would wait on her. My father had a very thick Spanish accent. And my mother was a, you know, farm girl from Wisconsin. And, he asked her out. And to his dying day, he said, \"I can't believe she ever said yes to me.\" She seemed so, you know, Lord \u0026 Taylor and Midwest. In any case, they were married in 1947, and I came along in 1950. So that's how they met. It's a real good New York story [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=137.0,201.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It's a wonderful story. And I see from the information you filled out, you were born in Manhattan? Or you lived your first few years in Manhattan?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=201.0,211.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yep. I was born in Park East Hospital, which I don't think exists anymore. It was on Park in the 80s, in New York City [ed. note: the hospital was at Park Avenue and East 83rd Street; it closed in 1977]. It might now be in the 70s, [called] Lenox Hill [Hospital]. But I was born in Manhattan. We lived in New York City on the West Side, on West 91st Street and Central Park West, for nine years or 10 years before we moved to Bayside, Queens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=211.0,236.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Mm-hmm. So as a child, did you play in the park all the time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=236.0,241.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, growing up in New York City in those days, it was very much like West Side Story. In those days there was an influx of Puerto Ricans. And there were always fights between Puerto Ricans and whites, just as in West Side Story. And of course, with the name Cortez, I was dubbed Puerto Rican. And I had to learn how to fight very quickly. So my...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=241.0,270.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Do you speak Spanish fluently?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=270.0,272.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: No, I don't speak it at all.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=272.0,276.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=276.0,277.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I mean, I do, I can understand [much of Spanish but don't speak] it. My father spoke [Spanish]; he also spoke Italian, and I can't speak Italian. But, so I don't, I don't speak -- when my father came to the United States, he wanted us, my brother [Don] and I, to become Americans. And to live the American dream. And he said that to us. And that's the reason he didn't teach us Spanish. We did not speak Spanish at home. I wish we did. It would help me today, but we didn't. So it was a tough neighborhood, in those days. And as I say, a lot of fights. And finally my parents put me in a private school. So I went to a private school in New York City. The Franklin School.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=277.0,324.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: I think that was my super at the door. Let me just give him the key. One minute. [RR leaves briefly.] OK, sorry!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=324.0,352.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Was that him? Good!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=352.0,354.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Where was the private school? In Manhattan?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=354.0,358.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. It still exists. It's called the International School now [ed. note: currently called the Dwight School]. But it's on around 90th or 89th and Park -- Central Park West. In fact, with my daughter [Rebecca], years ago, 20 or 30, I went to the school and the headmaster of the school at that time was the son of the headmaster when I was there in the 1950s. It was a great school. Predominantly Jewish. So all of my friends, I would accompany them to Hebrew school [laughs], you know, and baruch atah and all that. So I have a little -- any New Yorker has a little bit of Jewish in him. So in any case, I went to that school and I loved it. I really loved Franklin School and wanted to commute. When I went, when we moved to Queens, to Bayside, I asked my parents if I could commute to New York and they wouldn't let me because I was only 10 years old.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=358.0,423.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: What made your parents move to Bayside?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=423.0,427.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, I suppose it was the cost of living in New York City and -- trees, the suburbs. And also, in Bayside, [the apartment complex] where we lived had a wonderful pool, swimming pool. And that was an attraction. So [they] wanted to get out of the city. And we lived on a tough block, a tough block. Next door...it's all been torn down since. All of where I was born and all that, it's a brownstone. But we had fights in the street. It was a tough, you know -- it was a tough neighborhood. And it was not unlike -- I know it's fantasized in West Side Story -- but it is, it was not unlike what West Side Story [depicts]. There's that truth in it, right? I was there, you know. My parents wanted to get away.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=427.0,485.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It was different.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=485.0,487.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I'm sorry?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=487.0,488.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Bayside was very different. Very -- almost suburban, I guess.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=488.0,492.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Very different.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=492.0,495.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So when you got to Bayside, where did you go to school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=495.0,500.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, I went to public school first. And I didn't realize that I needed glasses and I would sit in the back. I couldn't see anything. And finally when they found out I needed glasses...They didn't know why I was not doing well in school. So they put me in, my parents put me in a private school in College Point. St. John's Lutheran School. My mother was Lutheran. And I remember that I think that was the first time I got glasses. And lo and behold, I could see. So the reason that I wasn't doing well is I couldn't see the blackboard. And nobody realized that. So I went to College Point to a Lutheran school and then Bayside High School. So I spent four years at Bayside High School before I went to Queens College.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=500.0,555.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Now when you graduated from Bayside High School, was there just the assumption that you would go to Queens College? Or did you want to go someplace else, but reality sent you to a city school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=555.0,568.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, here's what happened. I was a guitar player during my, during the last two years of high school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=568.0,578.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: How did you learn? I mean...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=578.0,579.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: My father, in Argentina, would, I suppose, go to the bars and listen to flamenco guitar. And he started me on guitar at five or six years old to become a serious musician. And I learned to read music quite well. So when I was 15 years old, in New York City on 47th Street, there was a recording studio. And I went in there and I would get paid to be a backup musician on records. 15 years old. You know, I still got my first -- $35 was my first check, which I think was a lot of money back in the 1960s. [Note: $35 in 1967 would be approximately $315 in 2022.] And so I'd do that. And then, a number of groups that were out of favor because the Beatles and British invasion had come in, like the Coasters, the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, which were from Long Island. All of these groups are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now. I toured with them, I was a backup. I was just a backup musician. So I did that. My biggest gig was at the Paramount, with King Curtis and Chuck Berry.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=579.0,655.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: But this was before you turned 18, you were touring with them?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=655.0,659.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah, yeah. I had -- I don't know if this is for posterity -- I did have a draft card [laughs] to prove I was 18, which I wasn't. So, but I, that's how I did that. And I was taken under the wing by the Coasters, the rock group. Yeah, they, their manager liked me, and he had me do gigs with other groups. So I was doing this before Queens College, in Bayside. And I was actually making a good deal of money doing this.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=659.0,690.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: How did it work with high school? You would just go off, or this was during the summers or weekends and...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=690.0,697.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: At nights. In fact, I will tell you that one gig, I was 16 years old. I think I was 15, I may have been 15. But they were watching me play guitar, a number of people, and they came up and they said, \"We're a group. We just got a contract from a record company. We're the James Gang, and we'd like you to go on tour with us.\" I said yes. And my father and mother looked at the contract. They said, \"You can't quit school and go on tour. This is crazy. And you're not of age to sign anything.\" That was the James Gang. It was Joe Walsh, who later joined the Eagles. You know, yeah. So, my daughter says, well, you could have been in the Eagles, but that's not quite true. But, so I was underage. I mean, I was under 18, but I was playing in all these places. And then I continued in my first few years [of college]. And it was solely because I could read music well, so I was good in studios. I could back up people and, you know. But that continued until, through my first two years of college, actually. I would play at night and behind the stage, I would read my books and do my homework.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=697.0,780.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: You were focused, I guess.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=780.0,784.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. I love school. I love learning. I'm...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=784.0,787.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: But so going to Queens College made it -- because it was in the city -- made it easier to keep doing music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=787.0,795.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. Well, I did go to Columbia between my junior and senior year of high school, for summer school. And I wanted to go to Columbia. I was accepted at Columbia. But, although I was making money as a guitar player, I didn't have that kind of money. And I didn't get a scholarship. So, my only other alternative was Queens College. And my father -- I suppose this is a truism -- but my father was wiser than I ever thought he was. He encouraged me to go to Queens College. He said, you know, you can do anything after that, but this is what you should do. And he was very, very happy I'd gotten into Queens College. So that's how I selected Queens College. It was only between Columbia and Queens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=795.0,849.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Now, you were a first-generation college student in your family?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=849.0,854.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yes. Yeah. None of my, to my knowledge, none of my family has gone to college, went to college before me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=854.0,865.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So was it a big deal for your parents that you were going?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=865.0,870.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I don't think so. I think my father wanted the American dream. That included college. And becoming, perhaps not a professional, but in a good, secure job with benefits. That's what he wanted me to do. And, but my mother loved John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and she thought that I would go on to do something. And it certainly required a college degree, so it was always assumed --always -- that I would go to college. And I never, never once in my life thought that I wouldn't.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=870.0,908.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Mm-hmm. OK.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=908.0,911.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Despite the fact that nobody else had.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=911.0,913.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. So when you went to Queens, were you thinking of studying music? Or you figured that music was not going to be a way of supporting yourself in a secure job with a pension?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=913.0,926.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Right. Well, music -- my parents were supportive of music, but not as a profession. And I learned very quickly being on stage that I wasn't that good. I could read music and I could do it, but when you heard Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix, you know, I mean, Eric Clapton -- I was out of my league. So, and I loved learning. So I, at Queens College, the wonderful thing about Queens was the great, great teachers. And I say that unhesitatingly. In my opinion, as good as any place else on Earth. Tremendous teachers. And, I wanted to then, I liked writing. I liked communication. I liked philosophy, and I liked mathematics. So I wanted to be a professor. I wanted to go on to graduate school and get my Ph.D. in either mathematics or philosophy, or a combination of the two. So that's what, that was my goal in the, at Queens College; to graduate and go on to graduate school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=926.0,1001.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Did you have any professors there who you remember well, who inspired you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1001.0,1007.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yes. As I say, I got married young. I was 19, I was a sophomore. I met my -- my wife is French. And we'd met on tour. I was on tour -- Miami Beach, Kenny Rogers. I was backing up Kenny Rogers in the groups and a number of others. And we met on the beach, and we got married a few months later in 1969. And I was a sophomore, so I had to get a job. And my job was working in a factory. My father got me a job in a factory -- Long Island City, the Equitable Paperback Factory. I was a printing pressman covered in ink. Those days, before digital -- ink and turpentine at the end of the day. And I worked from 4 o'clock till midnight and went to school during the day. At Queens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1007.0,1061.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And the most wonderful thing was the...you know, now we have remote learning, and we don't have to show up all the time. You know, we're on Zoom right now. In those days, it wasn't remote learning, but the professors would, because of my schedule, would allow me to take classes, to learn on my own. Take a test, or come in and see them and discuss things. Every one of them was accommodating. And this is Queens College in a City University. A big, big school. They treated me as an individual and helped me. Professor [George] Held of the English Department. Actually he is alive; he's in his late 80s, I think. And he has written poetry. And I communicated with him just a few months ago, and told him how much it meant to me that he supported my writing. I wanted to be a writer. I wasn't good, but [laughs]. But he was really, as an individual, supported me and helped me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1061.0,1131.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And to my regret, perhaps the most important professor was Professor Alex Orenstein, who was in the philosophy in mathematics department. Mathematical logic. And he would allow me to take tests and to come in and see him. And he was my mentor, and he recommended me to go to Harvard Rockefeller, which is free -- which he really wanted me to get into. I did not, but he helped me, and he wrote my recommendation letter to Columbia. Fellowship letter to Columbia. And I think without him, without a lot of these teachers, I wouldn't have made it. Especially with my schedule of working full-time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1131.0,1181.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Can I ask you, do you think this was something extraordinary for you? Or were there other people around who maybe were in similar situations and the professors were open to being...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1181.0,1198.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I would say that they were all open. I can't, you know, I don't know of anybody that was in my situation, because, unfortunately, I didn't attend class as much as I wanted to because of the circumstances. And I'm one of the few people who wanted to go to school and couldn't. But they always were busy in their offices with other students talking about things, discussing things. So I don't think I was, my experience was unique. I think being married, having a child, going to school...working full-time and going to school full-time may have been not something that was usual, but I don't think their generosity of time was unique to me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1198.0,1245.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Can I ask you, before I ask you more about Queens College, just about the life of a studio musician?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1245.0,1258.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I'm sorry, you cut out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1258.0,1260.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: A studio, a competent studio musician just will go to recording studios and see who picks them up? Or how does it work in terms of getting bands to need you and...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1260.0,1272.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Ah. Well, the way it worked for me -- and again, I was very young -- is, once I appeared with the Coasters, which...the Coasters, as you know, I think it was four African American [singers], maybe it was five at some time. It changed. So, they had a number of hits in the 1950s and early '60s. And then when the Beatles came in, that kind of music kind of faded out a little bit. So their number one hits went. And their manager really liked me. And he is the one that got me jobs at the recording studio to back up other groups. And most of the groups I backed up were not famous. They were just doing demo records to try to get, you know, show them to the music [producers]. And so I would get called by the recording studio that we have a date here. You know, two hours of work. You'll have to back up this. Bring your guitar, we have the amp. And that's how that happened.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1272.0,1348.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. So it was the studio that got you, not the people. And is that, as far as you know, typical -- at least back in that time -- that it would be the studios who would bring in musicians as backup?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1348.0,1361.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah, it was the studio, but it was the manager of the Coasters was the person who was managing other groups or in touch with other [groups], so he would alert the studio and the studio would call me. But it was this fellow who was kind of my mentor in a way, who helped me get the recording studio gigs. And also got me on tours with other -- well, brief tours. I mean, going out for a couple days with the Coasters or Mitch Ryder, or the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1361.0,1399.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So in high school, you must have been very popular. I mean, here you are playing with bands. You're in high school. I mean, to me, if I were your fellow student, it would be really impressive. Was it to your friends and fellow students, or?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1399.0,1419.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I don't know if they knew that I was doing all of that. Because it wasn't -- it was work. It wasn't particularly, it wasn't like I was hanging around with Keith Richards or Mick Jagger. I would go to work, I'd play, and I'd come back. I was in a lot of bands and, to that extent, I was popular. In fact, I told my grandson [Sam], who's good at drums, if you really practice...I know a lot of people have a tough time in high school; get a skill, and that will help you in high school. And sure enough, he's in middle school going into high school now, but he is sought after all the time in bands, which is what happened to me. Unfortunately, he doesn't like learning as much as I do, so we have to get him to mathematics classes and English classes. He's reluctant to do that because he loves to play the drums.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1419.0,1481.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. So getting back, I guess, to your Queens College experience. I guess you didn't really have a quote unquote college experience. You did your work. You had a family and worked. So you were, I guess, not really part of...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1481.0,1500.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I was not part of the Queens College community, I would have to say, except through the professors. And unfortunately, I don't -- I have one friend who went to Queens with me who, and we've been friends for 50, 60 years now, because we both grew up in Bayside. He's an attorney in Florida. But, no, it was really work. I mean, going, playing guitar and going to college was work for me. It was not like my kids, who, you know -- sunning themselves on the quad. Or had a, took off and went to Europe for a semester. No, it was work, and it was all focused on going to graduate school. Because I needed to get into a good graduate school. So I didn't have that kind of experience. My experience was more one-on-one with professors at Queens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1500.0,1558.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So when you graduated from Queens, you applied to graduate school? Where were you living when you went to Queens? Were you living in Queens still?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1558.0,1567.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I was living in Bayside, and then [my wife Josette and I], we moved in my sophomore year to Flushing. So we were right around Main Street, Flushing, in those high rises. I don't know, I forget the names of -- it's right at, almost at Main Street, you can walk to the subway. I can't remember the name.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1567.0,1590.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: You needed it, I guess, to get to work and to get to school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1590.0,1594.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Right. Well, I wanted to go to graduate school, and I was accepted at Columbia, and I was given a little money, and I started at Columbia. And literally within weeks, I knew. I was in the math Ph.D. program.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1594.0,1613.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Oh my gosh.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1613.0,1614.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And it was kind of like my guitar-playing experience. I'm OK, but I'm not that good. So I actually couldn't make it, and I didn't want to. I did not. I was in violation of Columbia's policy, because in order to support my family, I had to work full-time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1614.0,1633.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Oh.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1633.0,1635.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: But Columbia would actually kick you out. I think it's still true today. They would not allow you to work full-time and go in the Ph.D. program. So right off the bat, I was in violation of the Columbia rules. They never found out, but I dropped out before, and I needed a job again. And I applied at CBS News and, I don't know why. I don't remember, but I thought I'd be an anchorman or something, you know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1635.0,1665.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: [Laughs] Well, you have the right look!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1665.0,1667.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: [Laughs] Well, thank you. They didn't want me. So, I just answered an advertisement in The New York Times. I didn't know it was Merrill Lynch. And I showed up for the interview. And I showed up wearing, I had long hair. Not that long. It's to my neck, nape of my neck. I wore bellbottoms [laughs]. I had a polka dot tie. A blue blazer. And boots. And I remember thinking, sitting in the interview room, if they ask me to mop floors, I'll mop floors. And luckily they hired me. And the person who hired me, his name was Victor Lazzaro, he said, \"With your first paycheck, Mr. Cortez, there's a Brooks Brothers downstairs. Buy two suits, two white shirts and two ties. And you wear that to work.\" And ever since then, that's my uniform. And my daughter [Rebecca] looks at pictures of me at 21 years old when -- I started at Merrill Lynch when I was 21 and just out of school -- 22, 21 out of school. And she looks at pictures of me then and now, and she says, \"You're wearing the same thing that you did 60, 50 years ago.\"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1667.0,1760.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Well, it saves time thinking about what to wear.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1760.0,1766.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: [Laughs] That's right, that's right. I'm not a fashionista by any means.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1766.0,1771.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: But was it...I mean, I shouldn't say culture...it was a very different culture, I guess, than where you were working before. You know, printing, getting messy, all to very button-down, very formal.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1771.0,1787.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: That's what I wanted. I recognized what I wanted. And again, perhaps all of us who, in a way, I suppose all of us are in some way trying to fulfill our parents' wishes for us. And my father was, one of his jobs was a night watchman at 70 Pine Street in New York City, which was the headquarters of Merrill Lynch.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1787.0,1820.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Oh, wow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1820.0,1822.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And coincidentally, and I suppose in the back of his mind, he said, maybe one day my son can be one of those guys. And coincidentally, I did, you know, start my career at Merrill Lynch. So in any case, I wanted, once I got into the business and got in a suit and tie and white shirt, I liked it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1822.0,1850.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So you never thought after that of going to graduate school, even on a part-time basis, or...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1850.0,1857.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I did think of it, and in fact, I remember writing to, I think it was Princeton, and they wrote me back a nice letter saying, unless you are completely committed to philosophy in mathematics, it would be very difficult for you to make the transition. They discouraged me, I suppose, unless I had this huge passion. And I suppose I didn't have that. That passion was lost. One of...I believe, working at Merrill Lynch, I did see that the opportunities for travel, or restaurants that I couldn't afford in New York City that I'd like to go to, and, you know, a whole new world that opened up to me in seeing people who were wealthier than I and what they had. And I suppose it was materialistic; you know, it bit me. And I thought, well...I moved to New York City on the Upper East Side, and my daughter was sent to a private school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1857.0,1934.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: So it, you know, the lifestyle of working at Merrill Lynch. Even though I didn't make a lot of money, I saw the possibility of being able to do that. That got to me. And I wanted to do that. It wasn't my passion. I didn't know a stock from a bond. I was not ever interested in business or economics, but I found that I was OK at it. I found I was pretty good. And as you know, as you mentioned before about being popular in high school, if you find something that you're pretty good at and you get better and better, you find that you like it more and more and more -- because you succeed and it feeds on itself. And right now, I think I'm more passionate about what I do than ever in my life. And it's simply because it's built up over the years. So, you know, I've heard some people say, follow your passion. Rather, you become passionate at something you're good at. Don't -- you know, I love guitars. I love mathematics, but I wasn't that great. You find something you're pretty good at and follow that. And maybe if you're lucky, you'll find that that becomes your passion.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=1934.0,2019.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So you're going to continue to work indefinitely, even though you're at the point where you could retire if you wanted?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2019.0,2027.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yes. And there's a reason for this, if you don't mind me going on about this, but...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2027.0,2035.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It's very interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2035.0,2036.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I think the reason that I love what I do -- and we manage people's money. So we manage a billion and a half dollars of other people's money. And our philosophy is protection. Not to make a lot of money. It's to protect capital. Mom and Dad's capital with their retirement fund, as well as the International Monetary Fund. Two very different funds. But at the end of the day, they're...1929. My parents lived through [the stock market crash of] 1929 and my mentor, who died many years ago, but he was, and I swore that I'll never go through that again. And I saw 1973, '74, that recession. The dot-com bust. The financial crisis. My ex-boss, Hank Paulson, who was the Treasury Secretary at the time -- he was at Goldman Sachs when I was there. He wrote that if the government had not stepped in, we would've been in a depression. I believe that now we are at a point in history with Ukraine and Russia, West versus East, the rise of China, the division in America politically. The debt ceiling coming up. The risks are great of an accident, some sort of financial accident, war, whatever. My job is to make sure my clients don't lose any money, no matter what happens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2036.0,2147.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: So the answer to your question is, I think I've lived 50 years to get to this point. And people rely on us, my company, that we are not -- we are going to do everything we can not to lose money in the next few years, should something happen. I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what's going to happen. But I'm a student of history, and the risks now are as great as they were prior to World War I, World War II, Civil War. The risks. Doesn't have to happen. But, so I feel a mission in a way -- I hate to put it that way -- but I feel that I have a reason to live, and I have a mission. So that's why, no, I'm not going to retire and play tennis and play my guitars. I can do that anytime. I really am passionate about what I do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2147.0,2208.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. That's great, that's great! [Laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2208.0,2213.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I don't mean to get so serious, but I, this is something I've wanted all my life. And I think my skills are going to come in handy in the next few years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2213.0,2225.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK, great. You have a younger brother?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2225.0,2229.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2229.0,2231.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Was his life experience different from yours as a younger brother? Your father, you know, you sort of took from your father the idea that you need to have a secure, steady job. And as even, perhaps as the older brother, there was more put on you. He's a little bit younger with his....Did he look up -- you were a musician. Was he also a musician?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2231.0,2258.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: He [Don] was a musician. And he was a singer. He was on Broadway [correction: on tour for a summer] as a child in Oliver. You remember that show on Broadway. And he went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Very famous place. But unfortunately, he wasn't asked back for the second year. And, but he had, he was a -- we're very different. He's a jock. He's great at sports. I hate sports -- except for tennis. I don't follow it. I don't care about sports, any kind of sports. So, but he was opposite to me. And he was very good and became a semi-professional tennis player and went out to Colorado. And  unfortunately, unless you keep winning -- to be a pro at a big club, you know, it requires continuing winning. And he did not go to college. And my father, despite the fact that my father emphasized security, et cetera, I think he thought my brother might make it in the sports world. And unfortunately, he didn't. And he's worked for a number of companies since. But I have a bit of regret that I didn't push more for a college education for my brother.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2258.0,2345.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: But I thought, I don't know. I have a little bit of regret at that, but it didn't even occur to me at that time. It just seemed natural that I go to college. But my brother didn't really, was not interested in education as much as I was, so it seemed natural for him to follow his path and me to follow my path.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2345.0,2370.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Mm-hmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2370.0,2372.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: But we've become very, very good friends since then. And I'm happy to say when Frank -- Doctor, President Wu [president of Queens College] gave me the President's Medal a few years ago, he was on the call with his family. And we've become closer and closer over the years. Whereas when we were growing up, we were very, very different people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2372.0,2394.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It makes a difference. And with your children, did you sort of inculcate in them the idea of finding something that's secure and getting to love it? Or did you let them follow their passions or whatever?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2394.0,2412.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Well, I think my...you know, Wall Street is ups and downs. Big ups and downs. So I've had this, a lot of failures in what I've tried to do. And my oldest daughter saw that, and she said, I want nothing to do with that. I want security. So she became a district attorney. And she says, she knows the courts. She knows the judges. She does what she does. She's going to, when she retires, she's going to have a wonderful pension. And she never wants to go in a courtroom again after that. So my oldest daughter opted for the security because she saw how up and down Wall Street was.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2412.0,2459.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Right. At some point I realize you left New York for California.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2459.0,2465.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Right. Before we get to that, let me say that my other daughter [Natalie] or my... I have three daughters, but my daughter [Natalie], the second youngest, was opposite of my older daughter. My older daughter saw me going up and down in Wall Street and said, \"I don't want that up and down. I want security.\" My younger daughter became, went to New York University, to become musical, in musical theater. Probably the most insecure business you can, yeah. And, but luckily, she wound up on Broadway in West Side Story as Anita and played Diana in a revival of  A Chorus Line. In fact, David Byrne of Talking Heads -- I don't know if you know Talking Heads -- but David Byrne is bringing Here Lies Love, the musical that he wrote about Imelda Marcos or the Marcos family to Broadway this summer. And she's been asked back into it [I believe]. But she's got two, you know, she's got two children, and I don't think she's going to do it. I want her to do it, but she's got two kids and it's up to her. But one daughter took the secure route and the other took the most insecure route. Luckily it paid off for her. And she...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2465.0,2557.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: There's a lot of talent in in your family.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2557.0,2562.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. I don't know where it comes from [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2562.0,2566.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Well, you had some musical ability [laughs].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2566.0,2569.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. But, you are right. I did move to California -- to answer your question -- about 10 years ago? About 10 years ago. Because my company was based in California, and they asked me to come back as co-CEO of the company. So that's how I wound up in California.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2569.0,2595.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: But are you a New Yorker at heart, even if you're living in California?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2595.0,2599.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'll be in New York next week. Yeah. I come to New York every month, every couple months. All of my clients are in New York. Two of my daughters are in New York. So I'm in New York a lot. I'm out here, I came out because of the company, but now with remote learning, I could live in New York. But I found that living out here -- I live in Palm Springs, outside of Palm Springs [with Harriet, my wife of 30 years] --and it's a very nice way to live as you get older, you know [laughs]. But I love New York, and I actually think New York's the best place in the world to retire to. So, you never know, I may be back soon. May be back in the future.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2599.0,2651.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: But is there a Queens boy in you? Or you're just a New Yorker? I mean, is there any like, Queens experience? Like, I think of my Queens experience, like the World's Fair in '69 [correction: it was actually 1964-'65], that was a big thing for Queens, for me as a Queens girl. So...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2651.0,2667.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yep. Yeah, I played at the World's Fair. I played guitar. Back on my wall right here is a picture of the New York State Pavilion with me and my band playing in 1964. Is it '64? I think it's '64.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2667.0,2682.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: '64, right; '64, yes. Wow!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2682.0,2687.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: So, yes. And I would love to do more, as you know, I do lecture a couple times a year -- or try to -- at Queens College, in the risk management program and in the economics department. And I would like to get back, but frankly, I lived so long in New York City -- because I moved to New York City in 1971 and lived there practically all my adult life -- that it is really Manhattan. But anytime Queens College invites me back to anything, I'm happy to come back. And sometimes, I just love to sit on the bench in the quad.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2687.0,2730.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: You proved you're actually a Queens boy at heart by saying, I lived in New York City from '71. Because all of us who grew up in Queens, the city is Manhattan, we're just...you are a Queens boy!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2730.0,2743.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: [Laughs] Right. And I'll never forget one of the professors, Professor [James] Jordan, who is an expert, a world expert on Kant, Emmanuel Kant, he came over from Germany to teach at Queens College. He was a philosophy professor, and he couldn't understand why people called New York \"the City,\" but Queens was the city. And he couldn't get into his head that, that's what happened. Right. So we had to explain it to him.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2743.0,2772.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: It's interesting. So, were there many visiting -- while you were there, if you can remember, were there a lot of like visiting expert professors? Because, the thing that I recall, and then I know that Queens and the City University, at least before the '70s, when the city went broke and all of that, had really top-notch faculty because they were able to pay good salaries.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2772.0,2799.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah. I will tell you something, I remember at Queens College, that when I looked at the syllabus, especially in the Philosophy Department, mathematics and other places. And English, too. Almost every one of the professors had a degree from an Ivy League school, or a Caltech, or MIT. It was amazing. And many years later, I questioned my own memory, so Sara Kahan at Queens College actually got me what I was referring to. In 1967, I suppoose, '68 -- a syllabus with the academic credentials of those professors. And sure enough, the credentials, purely academic credentials of the Queens' faculty was as good as MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton. And so my memory certainly served me well. And yes, I mean, Bertrand, I didn't see Bertrand Russell, but he taught at City College. I think John von Neumann, the great philosopher, mathematics genius, came to Queens and lectured. And in the Philosophy Department, there were several besides Professor Jordan. There's a professor named Kiswicki Herbert, never know what happened to him, but he was from Austria, and he was a great mathematician and philosopher. So yeah, I mean, Queens College really opened up the world, academically, for me. It was a great, great, great faculty.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2799.0,2917.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Before I let you go, is there anything else you want to say about either your personal life, the college, growing up in New York, or anything?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2917.0,2931.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: No, I would just like to say for those...again, when I was in college, I changed what I wanted to do in life, because life changed me. You know, it was...and, again, getting back to that, find something you're pretty good at and follow that, even though it's not your passion, if you're good at it, it'll become your passion. So, I think that's what I would advise others. And another thing, I don't mean to be, you know, tedious here, but try things. And you're going to fail at them. Expect that you're not going to do everything well and you're going to fail and...but that's the way to do it. Because the worst thing to do is to look back and say, I could have done this, I should have done this, and all that. Do it, and expect, you know...so that's the advice that I would give my younger self. Don't be afraid to push the envelope and do things. And, in any case, those are the things that...I'm very lucky to have grown up in New York, in Queens, gone to Queens College. And...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=2931.0,3016.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Can I have a few minutes more? Thinking about growing up in New York, growing up in Manhattan, growing up in a sort of West Side Storyish, not the most calm, peaceful neighborhood, do you think it made you, as a child more independent, more savvy, more...worldly is not the right word, but did it make kids...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3016.0,3045.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/124","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yeah, I really do think it did. It motivated me to get out of that. It motivated me not to go, not to live like that, like the people. We had, next door on 91st Street, across from the El Dorado where Ernie Kovacs lived. And in those days, you know, very...and now Faye Dunaway. I mean, it's a big -- I didn't live there, Sinclair Lewis lived in that building. I lived across the street in a tenement And there were brothels. There's a brothel. People drinking in the street and fighting. It motivated me. And I suppose education was the way to do it, to get out of that. And it certainly made me more wary, and my father sending me to judo lessons to protect myself when I was seven years old.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3045.0,3108.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/125","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And I boxed later. I think doing that kind of thing gives you a self-confidence. And you don't have to go out and beat people up, but you, it gives you a confidence that if people mistreat you or mistreat somebody else, you can do something about it. So it gives you a...so I think growing up in New York all gave that to me. And I, my children grew up in Manhattan too, for the most part. And I think they got the same thing. So we're lucky that we're, you know -- you grow up very quick.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3108.0,3148.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/126","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Can I ask you? So, when you were in Manhattan, growing up as a child, was that the time when -- that's probably before they started tearing things down for Lincoln Center and before there was a revival.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3148.0,3163.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/127","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: It was the 19, early '50s to the mid-'50s. I believe Lincoln Center went up in 1960ish? Something like that. Late '50s. [Note: groundbreaking was in 1959, with various buildings opening throughout the 1960s.] And of course Lincoln Center was over, you know, further downtown than we were. But all of that West Side, in the 90s, was a tough neighborhood. Again, we had millionaires living across the street from you know, very low-income things. So, and that's -- if you see what's available in New York, you want it. I did. I wanted what I saw, and I think, you know, not to generalize, but I think it's the wonderful thing about America. I think people all over the world look at us and say, I want that. I want that freedom. I want to live like them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3163.0,3225.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/128","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: And that's why we have immigrants pouring into the country. And everybody wants to come here. Who wants to go to Russia or China now? I mean, very few. I mean, they want to come to America. And so I...Queens College, to me, is the American dream. That's why I am so committed to Queens College, and I have to do a shout-out for Frank Wu. He embodies what I believe, and Queens College embodies what I want for the world and what I want for kids. That opportunity to grow up -- no matter who you are, no matter how disadvantaged you are -- through education you can make something of yourself and live the American dream. That's -- to me, that's everything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3225.0,3278.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/129","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. This sounds like a wonderful to stop, and thank you for taking this hour out of your schedule to talk with us. One quick question, do you think, you mentioned Professor Held is still alive. Do you think he would be up to an interview about his years?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3278.0,3296.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/130","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I hope he would. He's become a poetry -- he's written books of poetry. He wrote, he sent me a couple, which I've read. I only had him for a couple classes, but I will tell you, I ran into him...in those days, there were Vietnam protests and for Civil Rights, Vietnam and Civil Rights. And to a certain extent for women's rights. I was at all of them. And I believe, without getting political here, I think Professor Held was there too. And, he may not remember this, but, his interest, a professor being interested in me as a no one just made me feel like part of the community. And of course I loved his classes, but it was more him as an individual and his taking time for me, that meant so much to me. So I would certainly get in touch with him and see if he would like to...Professor Gerald Held. And I don't know where he lives. I think he still lives in the New York area. I think it's Gerald. [Note: it is George.]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3296.0,3365.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/131","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: OK. Quickly, I'm sorry to not let you go, but you mentioned protests. And you managed to find time even though you were working and...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3365.0,3376.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/132","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Yes. Yeah. That was important to me. And that actually -- and I can't say that I agreed with all of them, because I was in a class with the chairman of the Philosophy Department, Professor [Eugene] Fontinell. We were in class and there was a beating on the door -- this is Queens College -- beating on the door. And students came in, like the Taliban. Got up and said, \"Get out of here. You should, you cannot learn. You cannot have this class because we are protesting the war.\" And we were intimidated. And we got up and we all left the classroom. And I went into Dr. Fontinell's office with him. And he was almost shaking. He could not believe this was happening. That students disrupted his class, kicked us all out. And he's the head of the department. He was, I could see, and I left him alone because he was so shaken by that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3376.0,3452.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/133","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: So I believed the Vietnam War was wrong. I believed in Civil Rights and things. but some of the actions taken by the students were radical. And, but on the whole, I went to New York City with the Queens College group to march in that. I was very...Richie Havens was a great, great singer, guitar player who was at Woodstock, sat in a Queens College classroom with us playing. After Woodstock. I mean, so, I really...for the social issues, Queens College was right up there with everybody and I did participate in that. Yeah. Even though I didn't go to a lot of classes, wasn't, you know, going around the, wasn't part of the community as much, I was for the social issues. Yeah. I believed strongly in this. And still do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3452.0,3512.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/134","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: So can I? I'm sorry. Now I'm thinking of all these questions. But working in the print factory, there you are, you're a worker, or maybe you were a union worker then. And then you're a student in a day, in a time when sort of students are protesting and students are this and that. Was there sort of, how were you looked at by your co-workers when you were a student? Or vice versa? Different, separate lives, or...?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3512.0,3551.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/135","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: I don't think any of the people that I had interacted with at college, they didn't know about my factory life, really. I mean, I didn't share that. Of course, at the factory I did have to join a union and, my co-workers, yeah, many of them, this was their life, you know. And I got along fine with them. They were wonderful people. That's all I can say. If down deep, I hope they had hope that they or their kids could get a chance to go to college, rather than saying, oh, who's this, you know, college kid who's doing this, and then he'll be out of here. But no, I never had any problems with both lives. Principally because my father was, he was the night watchman, you know? I mean, he was, and I was just moving up. Moving up a little bit, and fulfilling his dreams. So, no, I can't think of one instance where there was any problem.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3551.0,3631.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/136","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: And he got to you to see you fulfill your dreams?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3631.0,3635.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/137","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: He did. He died in 1985. I don't -- my wife keeps saying that it would be wonderful if my parents were alive today to have seen this, but I think he did. I think he did. Yeah. He, yeah. I think that he would say that I followed the straight and narrow and did what he wanted me to do. And I think my mother would say the same thing -- I hope.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3635.0,3668.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/138","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: [Laughs] All right, now I'll really let you go. Thank you so much.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3668.0,3672.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/139","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Ricardo Cortez: Thank you, Rebecca. OK. Bye-bye.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3672.0,3674.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654/transcript/92006/annotation/140","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rebecca Rushfield: Bye.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/167480/file/304654#t=3674.0,3684.65"}]}]}]}